PRESS RELEASE
Philippine Consulate General
Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Press Release No. 2008/POL/R/023-Con
Guidelines for temporary extension of passport validity issued
In a Circular (FSC No. 129-08) that took effect on 30 October this year, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila has prescribed a set of guidelines to all Philippine Embassies and Consulates abroad on temporarily extending the validity of passports in their respective jurisdictions. Banking on an Opinion issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the DFA has adopted the guidelines as an interim measure to address the sudden upsurge of applications for passport renewal that has resulted from the longer period to process and issue machine-readable passports (MRPs) and pending the implementation of the e-Passport.
Guided by the Circular and subsequent related clarifications issued by the DFA this December, the Consulate General is now ready to accept and process applications for the temporary extension of the validity of Philippine passports under the following circumstances: (1) Manually scripted green passports are no longer in stock; (2) The passport sought to be extended has a validity of not more than six (6) months; (3) The owner must personally file for the extension of his/her passport with the Consulate General; (4) The owner must submit his/her passport together with an application form for the amendment of its validity and an affidavit in which he/she must state: a) the reason/s for the urgency of having the validity of the passport extended for one (1) year and that he/she cannot wait for the issuance of the MRP or e-Passport; and b) that he/she undertakes to apply for a new passport within the extended period of validity. The affidavit must be duly authenticated by the Consulate General; (5) Upon finding that the applicant’s stated reason/s for extension are meritorious, the Consulate General may extend the validity of his/her passport for a period of not more than one (1) year from the date of the application; and (6) The prescribed fee for temporary amendment of the validity of the passport shall be paid prior to any extension.
Considering that the renewal of the validity of passports addresses an emergency situation, the fee for the affidavit required under the guidelines has been waived. Instead, the applicant will simply be charged with a flat fee of SR80.